How can I get this color?

[Arimara]

@Mobjack Bay I don't know if you have ever tried buckwheat honey. It is darker in color and less expensive than Manuka honey I'm sure. It's locally produced here, so your price point may be different.

Not sure if I tried buckwheat honey but Wildflower honey is usually a good deal darker than regular and clover honey. wildflower honey turned my lye and soap an interesting yellow before I colored it with rose clay and charcoal. If I have any left, I might try it as well. It might be interesting to know for sure if different types honey affect soap color, unless someone did that and I need to look.

 

[atiz]

I have a(n older) honey-beeswax soap that's almost the same color. I used annatto-infused oil plus the color the honey gave, + a slightly discoloring FO. It ended up a rich creamy tan color.
As others have said, honey itself may do the trick, especially if your lye water is not super cool when you add it.

 

[KiwiMoose]

Carrot juice and cocoa?

 

[Mobjack Bay]

Carrot juice and cocoa?

Nice out of the box thinking! I just finished up with honey and tea water. I SB’d the honey and my split water into the batter. No drama so far. I’m working on getting them to gel. How did I do on the color?

 

[Dawni]

How did I do on the color?

View attachment 42530

We shall see. I've learned to never trust natural colorants coz they almost always change on me lol

 

[Mobjack Bay]

They are getting a bit lighter and I’m having trouble getting them to gel, so I warmed the oven up again. I expected them to heat up due to the honey, but there’s no sign of that happening. I must be the only soap maker that can’t get soap to overheat no matter what I add to it.

 

[Arimara]

They are getting a bit lighter and I’m having trouble getting them to gel, so I warmed the oven up again. I expected them to heat up due to the honey, but there’s no sign of that happening. I must be the only soap maker that can’t get soap to overheat no matter what I add to it.

You're further south than I am too. Maybe your soap is just a tease?

 

[scard]

Would using this: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Goya-Sugar-Cane-Juice-11-8-fl-oz/109422738 from the posted recipe help, its got 40g of sugar per can? (it's a bit pricy though)

 

[dibbles]

They are getting a bit lighter and I’m having trouble getting them to gel, so I warmed the oven up again. I expected them to heat up due to the honey, but there’s no sign of that happening. I must be the only soap maker that can’t get soap to overheat no matter what I add to it.

Individual cavity molds never gel for me either. Never ever. Adding heat is the only thing that works - some of the time.

 

[Quilter99755]

Here is a soap that I made yesterday and unmolded today. It was a nice creamy color until I added the FO Dragon's Blood from Nurture Soap. It went from a medium trace to "Wow, am I going to be able to stir this into the soap and get it into the mold" fast! It turned dark as I was stirring it into the soap, but is quite a bit darker this morning. This was my first time using any FO's so a great lesson in looking at the specs from NS website before I toss in the FO...not after! Does anyone know if the color will fade as it cures? I sort of like it. Would it make any difference in the oils used or would all oils still come out this color? It was done CP (my second batch, so have no experience with it or FO's) But think I would like to make it again...the color. Now I need to find a mold like the original picture...it really shows off the color.

 

[dibbles]

It will probably get darker. Soap notes from NS:

Tested 6/28/18 by Carrie H. in a recipe of 33% lye solution with 5% superfat at 75 degrees. Recipe is 35% olive, 35% organic and sustainable palm, 20% coconut, and 10% castor. Very fast acceleration! Almost soap on a stick. If using this fragrance in CP, be prepared to move very quickly. This is a great scent for other products like HP, MP, and bath bombs.

Tested Again 3/16/19 by Carrie T. (owner) in a recipe of 33% lye solution with 5% superfat at 70 degrees. Recipe is 40% olive, 30% coconut, 20% organic and sustainable palm, 5% sweet almond oil, and 5% castor. Slight acceleration but completely workable with this recipe. Dark brown discoloration.

 

[Quilter99755]

It will probably get darker. Soap notes from NS:

Thanks for this info. It looks like I need to not only look at their "summary" but at the individual notes. Good thing I wasn't trying to do a swirl, etc. LOL

 

[Arimara]

Would using this: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Goya-Sugar-Cane-Juice-11-8-fl-oz/109422738 from the posted recipe help, its got 40g of sugar per can? (it's a bit pricy though)

I like that idea BUT I do not suggest getting that stuff at that price. Depending on where in PA you are, there should be enough Latinos in your area where you won't have to be conned into paying for that... and sugar cane juice is not the most refreshing thing to drink unless you like it. You can also make a simple syrup with 1:1 water to sugar.

 

[Mobjack Bay]

@scard - based on that video I mentioned above, the key sugar in that can would be the fructose (from the sugarcane). I just looked fructose up on Amazon and a 3 lb bag of straight fructose costs about $12. I might try it. Thanks for the idea!

So, last night’s soaping adventure produced tan soap. @Dawni

@KiwiMoose tonight’s soaping adventure involved baby food carrots, cocoa powder and a little bit of RBO infused with turmeric (which my spell checker tried to change to turmoil... who knows, could be). Right now I have very orange soap, but I expect the cocoa powder will pull into the lead at some point.

And no, I don’t know why I’m so consumed with making brown soap...

 

[Dawni]

So, last night’s soaping adventure produced tan soap. @Dawni

@KiwiMoose tonight’s soaping adventure involved baby food carrots, cocoa powder and a little bit of RBO infused with turmeric (which my spell checker tried to change to turmoil... who knows, could be). Right now I have very orange soap, but I expect the cocoa powder will pull into the lead at some point.

And no, I don’t know why I’m so consumed with making brown soap...

And most of us want to stay away from brown coz it's the easiest mistake to make lol of course, not that shade

Hopefully tonight's one gets you much closer to the brown you want.

 

[KiwiMoose]

Cinnamon:

 

[Mobjack Bay]

Cinnamon: View attachment 42542View attachment 42543

The color is great on those. Is it scratchy at all? Cinnamon powder is closer to the color I’m aiming for compared with cocoa. Did you make those with soy wax? They have a bit of translucency, which I think is hard to achieve unless the CO is high-ish.

@Quilter99755 that’s a pretty soap. I recently did a test soap with two different discoloring FOs. It’s a week old and getting progressively darker. For this one, I’m trying to get the color without a discoloring FO or mica.

 

[Mobjack Bay]

Has anyone gotten close using banana? I’m liking both versions, ungelled and gelled, of banana soap from Tweak and Tinker, here



or, I could give up and use magic mushroom mica from Nuture, which looks good (on my phone at least)

 

[Dawni]

My banana soaps, HP of course, are in between those two color wise. They were a lot darker when they were first made, more like banana bread lol, but have since lightened up. I'll show you once the lil guy sleeps.

 

[KiwiMoose]

The color is great on those. Is it scratchy at all? Cinnamon powder is closer to the color I’m aiming for compared with cocoa. Did you make those with soy wax? They have a bit of translucency, which I think is hard to achieve unless the CO is high-ish.

@Quilter99755 that’s a pretty soap. I recently did a test soap with two different discoloring FOs. It’s a week old and getting progressively darker. For this one, I’m trying to get the color without a discoloring FO or mica.

They have 20%CO, 15% Shea as the only hard oils - that was in my early days of making soap before I discovered SW. Yes, some would say scratchy, but they didn't bother me.